Hometown Kidron: Amish Ice

Finally we have some cold weather. People are beginning to skate on the ponds around here. For quite a while it seemed there would be no ice. We’re not getting any of the snow that is piling high in the northeast though. Some southern parts of Ohio are getting a nice thick blanket, and (dare I say it?) I’m a little envious. A good snow a couple times in the winter is really pretty.

Went for a long walk today, and my Stutzman neighbors were back at the pond behind the Jericho Amish school, cutting ice for their ice-house. I hiked back to watch them for a while and asked if I could get some pictures. No problem as long as they aren’t in them. Well, I snuck a couple of them in anyway... from a distance… without faces showing… sort of.

Last year when I saw them cutting ice, I asked how long it would last. They said probably until September. So today I asked them if it really lasted until September last year. Yes it did.

They have an old insulated truck body inside a corrugated metal building. The building is about one foot larger than the body all the way around, and that area is packed with sawdust for more insulation. It’s a good system for the Swartzentruber Amish. They have refrigeration for all summer and into the cooler weather of fall.

Mr. Stutzman, the father, was sawing the ice, and his teenage boys were loading it on the wagon. They were working hard and fast. I mentioned to them that loading the ice must be making them warm. They laughed, “Yes,” one of them replied, “The ice makes us warm in the winter and cool in the summer.” And with that, they kept on loading the ice as fast as they could. The day was waning, and they really couldn’t burn any more daylight talking with an Englishman. Good people, they are. Our short conversations are always a pleasure.

That’s enough for today. Thought you might enjoy the pictures, so we’ll let them do the talking.